The latest news on avoiding dairy products if you are lactose intolerant, have milk allergies, are a vegan, or want to keep kosher.

The Lactose Intolerance Clearinghouse Has Moved.

My old website can be found at www.stevecarper.com/li I am no longer updating the site, so there will be dead links. The static information provided by me is still sound.

For quick offline reference, you can purchase Planet Lactose: The Best of the Blog as an ebook on Smashwords.com or Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com or a whole lot of other places that Smashwords is suppose to distribute the book to. Almost 100,000 words on LI, allergies, milk products, milk-free products, and the genetics of intolerance, along with large helpings of the weirdness that is the Net.

I suffer the universal malady of spam and adbots, so I moderate comments here. That may mean you'll see a long lag before I remember to check the site and approve them. Despite the gap, you'll always get your say. I read every single one, and every legitimate one gets posted.

Here are some excerpts that are of concern to those with dairy allergies.

2. How can you confirm a diagnosis of cow’s milk allergy?

Cow’s milk allergy is relatively common in infants (1:50) and rarely develops after one year of age. Symptom improvement on a cow’s milk-free diet and recurrence of symptoms with reintroduction of cow’s milk formula is the most accurate diagnostic method.

Skin prick tests using fresh cow’s milk and RAST blood tests for cow’s milk protein IgE antibodies are the only reliable tests and have 60-90% accuracy. The higher the milk-specific IgE, the more likely there is to be a clinically relevant milk allergy. On the other hand, IgG antibody testing for cow’s milk proteins (casein and b-lactoglobulin) is of no diagnostic use.

The clinical history and observation of the infant feeding are very helpful, and a family history of atopy increases the likelihood of a food allergy. Cow’s milk allergy can manifest with immediate urticaria and facial angioedema and respiratory, oral and laryngeal symptoms, as well as deteriorating eczema in addition to typical symptoms such as vomiting, diarrhoea, persistent reflux, food refusal and even anaphylaxis in severe cases.

Mildly milk-allergic infants will tolerate small amounts of processed dairy produce such as yoghurt and cheese. Infants with severe cow’s milk allergy will react to traces of milk protein in partially hydrolysed formula, and even breast milk, as well as any skin contact.

3. What are the best formula alternatives and what role do other milks play?

Cow’s milk-free formulas are expensive - £8 to £20 per 400g. Amino acid-based formulas such as Neocate and Pepdite are best because they are completely free of cow’s milk protein, but are more expensive than extensively hydrolysed formulas such as Nutramigen and Pregestimil, which are the current preferred cow’s milk-free formulas. Exquisitely sensitive infants may react to traces of cow’s milk protein even in extensively hydrolysed formulae.

An amino acid-based formula provides a good therapeutic trial for initial diagnosis of cow’s milk allergy, after which it would be cheaper to switch to an extensively hydrolysed formula – if it can be tolerated.

Although soy milk is the cheapest alternative formula available at around £4 per 400g, 20% of cow’s milk allergic infants will develop a concomitant soy allergy. The fear that soy milk phyto-oestrogens can feminise male infants is without scientific foundation.

Goat’s milk is inappropriate as it contains many of the allergenic proteins found in cow’s milk, so should not be recommended. Comminuted chicken meat suspensions are another alternative, particularly if there is associated carbohydrate intolerance.

4. How many affected infants will grow out of a cow’s milk allergy?

Half will outgrow their cow’s milk allergy within one year, 75% by two years and 90% within three years. Cow’s milk protein intolerant infants with problematic gastro-oesophageal reflux and colic usually spontaneously recover by the end of the first year. This represents a delayed hypersensitivity to the cow’s milk protein resulting in oesophageal inflammation and eosinophilic infultrates. Depending on severity it makes sense to rechallenge cow’s milk allergic children after one year and then every six months thereafter. In severe cow’s milk allergy challenge testing should not be contemplated outside a hospital setting.

The rest of the article is way too long to repost, but contains a lot of good general information for parents of kids with food allergies. Please take the time to read it.

About Me

I'm lactose intolerant. I wrote the book on the subject. Literally. Milk Is Not for Every Body: Living with Lactose Intolerance is its name.
I've researched everything on the subject of lactose intolerance for 30 years. I know just about everything about living without dairy products. That means I've been able to help people with dairy protein allergies, vegans, those who want to keep kosher, and others who want to reduce, limit, or eliminate dairy from the diet.
I keep an eye out for information that might be useful. You can see a lot of it at my website, Steve Carper's Lactose Intolerance Clearinghouse (www.stevecarper.com/li). The Milk Free Bookstore and the Product Clearinghouse sections have something for everybody. But the site got too big to update regularly and too cluttered to find information easily.
That's why I started this blog. It really does cover the planet for lactose- and dairy-related items. I think I have the only blog in the world that does this.
So please check it out regularly. Send me items you think may be of interest. Ask me questions: I answer every one, either here or by email. stevecarper@cs.com